CYPRUS REJECTS LEVY PROPOSAL: Overnight, the focus remained on the Cypriot deposit levy/bailout issue.  In latest news the vote of ‘Plan B’ has just failed. Overnight the Cyprian parliament debated a ‘Plan B’ as they rejected the current governing party’s request to postpone the vote and ‘Plan A’ was a show stopper. ‘Plan B’  was  only slightly modified from the first cut as …

New Zealand shares rallied late in the day, after suffering from the same negative sentiment induced in other overseas markets by the banking crisis in Cyprus. The NZX 50 Index rose 4.016 points, or 0.093 percent, to 4,345.040 after spending most of the day in negative territory. Within the index, 28 stocks rose, 15 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover …

The New Zealand dollar was little changed after the Reserve Bank of Australia released minutes of its last policy meeting, giving little further in the way of clues to its interest rate intentions. The kiwi dollar traded at 82.48 US cents, little changed from the start of New Zealand trading and up from 82.33 cents the previous day. The trade-weighted …